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Little Blue Heron

I know I've been slacking in the photo department so I decided to take my camera out last night and go birding along the Charles. I went at dusk and unfortunately by the time I walked down there I realized my batteries were dead. It wasn't such a big deal because I really didn't see anything too interesting. Lots of catbirds as usual, and I also saw a female cardinal that I got a few pictures of before my camera died. Unfortunately they're too blurry, but it was good to get back out there again. My batteries are all charged up and I can't wait to go out again soon.

Today I spent some time walking (the key word here is walking since I never have time to stop and identify birds when I'm jogging of course) along the river again. It was Green Day at work and I took the bus in and decided to walk home since it was nice out. It took me an hour exactly and it was nice to have time to get even more familiar with the trail and where the best areas are for birding.

The most exciting sighting occurred at the beginning of my walk home. I saw a little blue heron wading in shallow water pretty close to where the Charles River Yacht Club is. I stopped for a minute to look at him and I was happy that he didn't walk away but rather was checking me out at the same time. He gradually took a few steps away, still keeping an eye on me over his shoulder.

I've posted about seeing some great blue herons in flight, but I never identified a little blue heron before. It's really too bad I didn't have my camera with me but I just didn't think of it this morning. I'm 99% positive that's what it was and based on my Sibley Guide and images I've seen online, I think that's what it was. If anyone has any other ideas though please let me know.

Comments

Unknown said…
I found your blog by googling "little blue heron" and "Massachsuetts" - which we goggled because we are 99% positive that we just saw one along the Charles River in Waltham. So, you probably did see one! :)

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